MAMMALIA QUADRUMANA. 473 



seen that the foot itself is transformed into a hand. 

 A small inclination is given to the articulation of 

 the tarsus with these last mentioned bones, which 

 imparts a degree of twist to the feet, throwing the 

 sole inwards, and causing the monkey while walk- 

 ing to rest chiefly on its outer edge. This seeming 

 defect gives a slight appearance of awkwardness to 

 the gait : it is not, however, to be viewed as an im- 

 perfection ; for it is evidently designed to assist 

 the animal in climbing trees, which is its most 

 usual action ; the oblique position of the foot en- 

 abling it most effectually to lay hold of the branches. 

 Monkeys are evidently not formed to excel in 

 swiftness ; for the heel, in these animals, presents 

 no large projection, as in other orders of mam- 

 malia ; nor are the muscles m hich are inserted into 

 the heel particularly powerful : they hardly, in- 

 deed, can be said to compose a calf as in the 

 human leg. 



§ 12. Mcuu 



The series of structures modelled on the charac- 

 teristic type of the Mammalia, after having ex- 

 hibited the successive developement of all its 

 elements, attains the highest perfection in the 

 human fabric : for even independently of those 

 prerogatives of intellect and of sensibility, by which 

 Man is so far exalted above the level of the brute 

 creation, both his physical structure and his phy- 

 siological constitution place him incontestably at 

 the summit of the scale of terrestrial beings. Con- 

 sidered zoologically, indeed, the human species 

 must rank among the Mammalia, and it even 



